Conveyer



April 25, 1939. K. w. JONES 53 CONVEYER Filed Feb. 4, 1938 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 \2 e FJGI. 5 F

April 1939- K. w. JONES 2,155,553

CONVEYER Filed Feb. 4, 1938 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 :7 FIGS.

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Patented Apr. 25, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Application February 4, 1938, Serial No. 188,754 In Great Britain February 10, 1937 9 Claims.

machines of various kinds sheets of paper, cards,

6 cartons or other appropriate articles. Whilst the conveyer according to the invention is particularly suited to feeding sheets of paper or cards to, carrying them through, or delivering them from, ruling, printing, numbering, perforating, cutting and like machines, it also will be found advantageous in feeding paper sheets to or through bag and envelope making machines, and creasing or folding machines, and delivering the articles from the machines as for stacking or piling, as well as in other machines in which a flat surfaced article is to be fed forwardly and correctly positioned against a side-lay.

It is the object of the invention to provide a simple and efficient conveyer suitable for the purposes above mentioned which, without the use of rollers or belts disposed obliquely to the sidelay and without the employment of pull-over mechanism, will carry a sheet, card or other article not only forwardly but also laterally towards and into contact with a side-lay, which may be fixed or be movable forwardly syn.- chronously with the conveyer, and in addition will correct any obliquity of said article in relation to said side-lay whilst such article travels forwardly in contact therewith, the article after being brought into correct position relative to said side-lay being maintained automatically in correct relation therewith during its continued forward movement effected by the conveyer.

3 The invention consists in a conveyer constructed according to any of the appended claims, and as hereinafter described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which,-

Fig. 1 shows in plan a conveyer according to 9. one embodiment of the invention, certain parts being shown diagrammatically for convenience of illustration.

Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section of the conveyer shown in Fig. 1, the section being taken 35. on the line A-B, looking in the direction of the arrow points.

Fig. 3 is fragmentary view to a larger scale showing portions of the right hand roller and one of the belts included in Figs. 1 and 2.

Figs. 4, 5, 6 and 7 are fragmentary views illustrating alternative means which may be employed for separating the strands of a stranded belt at the rollers at the endsof the conveyer, as will be described later, Fig. 5 being a crosssection of Figs. 4 on the line CD.

Fig. 8 is a plan, largely diagrammatic, of a conveyer according to an embodiment of the invention for use in carrying a sheet through a printing, embossing, numbering or like machine.

Fig. 9 is a single line elevation, which may be considered as being diagrammatic, of the conveyer shown in Fig. 8.

Fig. 10 shows, largely diagrammatically, a conveyer embodying the invention and equipped with a moving side-lay.

Fig. 11 is a cross-section on the line G-H, Fig. 10, showing a means for driving the side-lay synchronously with the conveyer belts.

Fig. 12 shows in plan a conveyer, according to an embodiment of the invention, adapted to convey a sheet through a machine firstly in register with a side-lay at one side of the conveyer and, after numbering or the like, to bring such sheet into register with a side-lay at the other side of the conveyer for further printing or the like.

Fig. 13 is a single line elevation of an alternative construction of conveyer having the same object as the construction shown in Fig. 12, as will be described.

Fig. 14 is a fragmentary plan view illustrating a means for reversing the direction of rotation of a stranded belt at a point intermediate the ends of a conveyer according to one embodiment of the invention, and

Fig, 15 is a section on the line J-K of the belt rotation reversing means shown in Fig. 14.

Referring to the drawings, a conveyer according to the invention is constructed of a plurality of endless flexible belts I passing in tension around rollers 2, 3 at opposite ends of the con- Veyer, each belt comprising two or more continuous strands which, at least at the upper or carrying side of the conveyer, are twisted together so that they are helically disposed throughout the length of the conveyer, or of a selected 0 zone or zones thereof, and there being provided at opposite ends of the conveyer, or of any selected Zone in the length of the conveyer, means operating to prevent the respective belts rotating about their longitudinal axes as they pass such means, whereby over the length of the conveyer, or the selected zone thereof, each belt is caused to rotate about its longitudinal axis as it travels forwardly, the rotation of the belt traversing the article marked 4 where showing in the drawings, laterally of the conveyer to bring it into contact with the side-lay 5, and, in the event of the article after such contact is made lying obliquely to said side-lay, operating to bring the appropriate edge of the article parallel with the side-lay and. maintain such edge in true contact therewith during the remainder of the forward travel of the article effected by the conveyer or by the selected zone thereof,

The extent of the lateral movement of the sheet or other article effected per foot of forward movement is governed by the pitch of the helices formed by twisting together the strands of the individual belts, and the direction of its lateral movement by the direction of rotation of the belts which is determined by whether the helices be right-handed or left-handed.

In the construction illustrated in Figs. 1 to 7 each belt I is constitued by two strands twisted together, which in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 are separated at the rollers 2 and 3 by reason of the fact that the strands are arranged to lie in separate peripheral grooves 2a, 3a. (Figs. 1 and 3) in the rollers 2 and 3, respectively. The rollers are mounted in suitable bearings in frame members or supports 6, I and are synchronously driven, a convenient means being that shown in Fig. 1 and comprising sprocket wheels 8. 9 on the rollers 2, 3, and a sprocket chain I0, the roller 3 being driven from a suitable source of power by a belt (not shown) passing around a pulley II carried by the roller. The side-lay is: shown as being carried by the frame member 6, by means of screwed studs I2 equipped with nuts, enabling such side lay to be adjusted and accurately positioned.

Instead of the grooved rollers shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 for separating the strands of the belts, to restrain the belts from rotating about their longitudinal axes when passing around the pulleys, other separating means may be employed. For example, the rollers may have smooth peripheral surfaces and a comb I3, Figs. 4 and 5, be arranged adjacent the roller, the fingers I4 taking between the strands of the respective belts. Alternatively the strands of the belts may be separated by annular discs I5 mounted on non-grooved rollers as shown in Figs. 6, or by the belts ID of another conveyor section as shown in Fig. 7. The belts Ib may be single strand non-rotating belts, grooves I6 being provided in the roller to locate such belts, or they may be stranded rotating belts in which case the strands of a belt I would alternate with those of a belt I b, and locating grooves would be provided. in the roller for the strands of either the belts I or the belts II).

A stranded belt I may be formed of two strands as shown, or of more than two strands, twisted together with each strand formed of relatively fine wire wound into a helix with adjacent convolutions closely spaced or in actual contact when the helix is not in tension.

The conveyer shown in Fig. 1 comprises an appropriate number of belts I parallelly disposed and spaced apart as desired. The spacing may be regular as shown, or irregular according to requirements. If desired the rotating belts I may alternate with non-rotating belts, or some of the latter may be distributed amongst the former across the width of the conveyer.

The conveyer may pass over and under a table having its upper surface provided by a smoothsurfaced material to minimize friction, for example polished steel or plate glass, or hard wood slats, and if desired, shallow channels or grooves may be formed in the table to guide the belts,

, and, by preventing side swing, avoid the rotating portion of a belt contacting with thesimilar portion of an adjacent belt, which would result in undesirable friction and wear of the belts.

Where the conveyer is employed for carrying sheets or the like through a machine, for exampie a printing or numbering machine, the belts preferably are arranged in banks or groups spaced apart to expose the appropriate part or parts of the machine, at the desired location or locations, to the underside of the sheet or the like, the remainder of the space between. the banks being occupied by short belts, by a fixed plate or plates, or a wooden slat or slats. Such a construction is illustrated in Figs. 8, 9, 12 and 13, in which I! and I8 are parts of the machine it is desired to expose, I9, Fig. 12, being plates or slats bridging the spaces between the groups of belts I which are not occupied by the parts II, I8, whilst in Figs. 8 and 9 short belts Ia are employed, such belts passing around intermediate rollers 23, 24 which also afford support to the long belts I. The long belts may be carried downwardly at the ends of the conveyer, and around rollers 25, 26 positioned so that the belts may pass beneath the transverse support of the machine elements I'I, I8, as shown in Fig. 9.

In the constructions shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 8 the side-lay 5 is a stationary part, but if desired a moving or travelling side-lay may be employed, for example as shown in Figs. 10 and 11, such a side-lay being advantageous when the conveyer is carrying very thin, sheets of paper, to obviate friction between the edge of the sheet and the side-lay. The side-lay shown in Figs. 10 and 11 consists of an endless band 21 passing in tension around rollers or pulleys 28, 29 disposed with their rotational axes vertical, one of the pulleys being driven to effect travel of the band in the same direction and at the same speed as the belts I. It is considered best to drive synchronously both pulleys 28 and 29 as by so doing the liability of the belt 2'! slipping is reduced to a minimum. A convenient means for driving the belt 2! is illustrated, as an example, in Figs. 10 and 11. The pulley 29 is carried by, and. is fast with, a spindle 39 journalled in bearings in brackets 3| mounted on the frame member 6, and such spindle carries a sprocket wheel 32. Pulley 28 is similarly mounted and fast with a sprocket wheel, a sprocket chain (not shown) passing around both wheels. Fast on the spindle 30 is a bevel wheel 33 which meshes with a bevel wheel 34 on a shaft 35 journalled in the frame members 6, I, said shaft carrying and being driven by a sprocket wheel 36 which in turn is driven from the pulley II through the sprocket wheel 9 and chain I0. The sprocket wheels and bevel pinions, and the diameters of the rollers 2, 3 and pulleys 28, 29 are such that the belts I and band 21 are driven at the same speed.

If desired within the length of a conveyer strand separating means may be interposed whereby the direction of rotation of the belts rearwardly and forwardly of such interposed means, or each of such means may be reversed, and a sheet or other article may be brought correctly against one side-lay and subsequently traversed by the belts to effect side-register with another side-lay at the opposite side of the conveyer. Two examples of constructions for effecting such a change in side-register are illustrated by Figs. 12 and 13.

In Fig. 12 the conveyer comprises two sets of belts I and NH the belts I passing around the roller 2 and the intermediate grooved roller 31, and belts i9I- around rollers 37 and 3. The

belts l, as in the preceding figures, are twisted to revolve in the direction to register with the side-lay 5 for correctly positioning a sheet as it passes over the machine element ll, whilst the 4 belts llH are twisted to rotate in the reverse direction to the belts l and bring the sheet into register with the side-lay 38 in order that it shall.

be properly positioned when passing the machine element l8. It will be understood that the rollers 2, 31 and 3 are driven at the same speed, the sprocket chain Ill being engaged with a sprocket wheel on the spindle of roller 31 as well as with the wheels associated with rollers 2 and 3.

A similar result may be effected by employing a single set of belts I. In construction shown in outline in Fig. 13 the belts pass over two intermediate grooved rollers 31, 39 and under a roller 40, the lower portions of the belts passing under a roller 4|. The portions of the belts between rollers 2 and 3'! are twisted to provide say left-hand helices whilst the portions between rollers 39 and 3 are reversely twisted to righthand helices. Thus the direction of rotation of the belts in the two regions of the conveyer will be reversed and the sheets carried thereby be brought into register with one side-lay when passing over machine element l1 and with the side-lay at the opposite side of the conveyer when passing over element l8. A bearer plate 42 would be interposed between the rollers 31 and 39 to support the sheets as they pass from one conveyer region to the other.

Another method of effecting reversal of sideregister within the length of a single set of belts I is illustrated in Figs. 14 and 15, and consists in separating the strands of each belt by two inclined pulleys 43, 44 mounted on suitable axles carried by a transverse support 45. The twists of the strands of the belts provide oppositely handed helices rearwardly and forwardly of the pulleys 43, 44, whereby the belts rotate about their axes after passing said pulleys in the reverse direction to that in which they rotate as they approach the pulleys.

In some machines having sheet or card conveyers hold-down or top cords are employed between which and the conveyer bands or tapes the sheets or cards lie as they are fed forwardly. In a machine having a conveyer or feeder according to this invention, hold down or top cords may be employed which may be of the same form and operate in the same manner as the belts of the conveyer.

Although at present it is considered preferable that the belts be made of coiled springs or of india-rub-ber, and be stretched to place them on the end rollers of the conveyer, so that they will be self-tensioning in use, the invention also contemplates belts made of non elastic material, for example leather, in which case the conveyer would be equipped with adjustable pulleys or rollers or other conventional belt tensioning means.

It is considered preferable to drive the rollers at both ends of the conveyer, although in some cases it may be suflicient to drive only the roller at the delivery end of the conveyer. Further, should it be desired to reduce the speed of the belts at one side of the conveyer, for example at the side remote from the side-lay, this may be effected by the employment for such belts of separate rollers or pulleys at the ends of the conveyer of lesser diameter than those nearer the side-lay, or by the use of tapered rollers at the ends of the conveyer, the axes of the rollers being inclined, if required, in order that the carrying runs of the belts may lie in the desired plane.

-It is considered preferable to form the belts of the appropriate number of separate complete endless bands and to twist the bands together.

between the rollers. With belts so formed the side thrust of the conveyer, or of some of the belts'thereof, may be adjusted from time to time as required by varying the number of twists in the belts.

.Some of the constructional details illustrated and described herein might be varied without departing from the invention. Thus for example, where atravelling side-lay is required it might be constituted by a sprocket chain instead of the band 21 shown in Figs. 10 and 11, the sprocket wheels 32 and their associated chain then being dispensed with.

What I claim is:

1. A conveyer, comprising a plurality of endless flexible belts passing in tension around rollers, each belt consisting of a plurality of strands which for at least the forward run of the belt between selected locations spaced longitudinally of the conveyer are twisted together to provide a plurality of helical members, means being provided to engage the belts at each of said locations and separate the strands thereof whilst permitting forward travel of the belts, thereby efi'ecting rotation about their axes of the forwardly running portions of the belts obtaining between said strand separating means.

2. A conveyer as claimed in claim 1 and having at a selected location a roller with grooves in its peripheral surface, there being for each belt a number of grooves corresponding to the number of strands in'such belt and serving to separate said strands at such roller. l

3. A conveyer as claimed in claim 1 and having at a selected location a roller with annular discs thereon, the discs operating to separate the strands of the belts at such roller.

4. A conveyer as claimed in claim 1 and having at one end a roller common to the belts of such conveyer and to the belts of another conveyer forming an extension of the first-mentioned conveyer, the belts of the second-mentioned conveyer separating the strands of the belts of the first mentioned conveyer, and grooves in the periphery of said roller appropriate to the belts of one of said conveyors to locate the belts on the roller.

5. A conveyer as claimed in claim 1 and having at a selected location a comb whose fingers operate to separate the strands of the belts.

6. A conveyer as claimed in claim 1 to be employed for carrying articles through a printing, numbering or other machine, comprising relatively long axially rotating belts arranged in two groups spaced laterally of the conveyer and interposed therebetween relatively short axially rotating belts arranged in two groups spaced longitudinally of the conveyer, the space between the two latter groups exposing a part of the machine to the lower surface of the sheet, card or other article being carried by the conveyer.

7. A conveyer as claimed in claim 1 to be employed for carrying articles through a printing, numbering or other machine, comprising relatively long axially rotating belts arranged in two groups spaced laterally of the conveyer, relatively short axially rotating belts interposed between said groups of long belts and arranged in two groups spaced longitudinally of the conveyer,

common rollers at opposite ends of the conveyer around which the long belts and the respective groups of short belts pass, and two intermediate rollers spaced apart longitudinally of the conveyer and around which the respective groups of short belts pass, the space between the groups of short belts exposing a part of the machine to the lower surface of the article being carried by the conveyer and the intermediate rollers afiording support to the long belts in the region of the exposed part of the machine.

8. A conveyer as claimed in claim 1 having strand separating means for the belts interposed in the length of the conveyer with the helices of the belt portions on opposite sides of said means right-handed and left-handed, respectively,-

whereby an article may be carried forward for a portion of the length of the conveyer in register with a side-lay at one side of the conveyer, and

after passing said separating means be carriedforward in register with a side-lay at the opposite side of the conveyer.

9. A conveyer as claimed in claim 1 having combined therewith a side-lay consisting of an endless flexible member passing around pulleys on vertical axes, and means for driving said member at the same speed as the conveyer belts.

KENNETH WARNER JONES. 

